Integral RAW storage facility

The reason for the preparation of the realization of the integral RAW storage facility is the securing of storage of solid waste, treated using various technologies, from the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, until these can be reintroduced back into the environment, or transported to the site of their definitive storage. The gathering of this kind of waste in one place will make it possible to reliably protect the environment, to keep a central record and to control it.

The realization of the construction will contribute to the fluent continuation of the decommissioning of the A1 and V1 NPPs. The original projects of the WWER 440 reactor type power plants did not take into account that the produced radioactive waste (RAW) will be processed and treated during the operation of the power plants. The only activity that was to be going on, within the scope of RAW management, during the operation of the plants, was their collection, sorting and storage. In the late seventies Czechoslovakia had adopted the concept of RAW neutralization and in 1981 the realization program of this concept was started. Its main goal was a complex solution, representing the optimization of the whole process of RAW neutralization, based on the minimization of RAW production, of the volume of stored Raw, of the neutralization cost and of the influence of the waste on the environment. According to the complex strategy of RAW management of the Slovak Republic, a solution for the safe storage of radioactive waste from the decommissioning of the A1, V1 and other NPPs is required.

The integral storage facility is being planned as an independent standing structure with a series of one-nave single-level halls. In one module it will be possible to store a maximum of 600 pieces of concrete containers sized 1.7 × 1.7 × 1.7 m, while using various types of coating.

The construction of this facility will create a technological environment for safe long-term storage of RAW (70 years), which for some reason cannot be stored in the National Repository in Mochovce. It will also be suitable for short-term RAW storage, before the RAW is treated in the Bohunice RAW processing center. The very nature of the storage facility is such that it cannot directly increase the risk for the involved population, in terms of air or water pollution through pollutant emissions, noise or vibration.

Two options are considered for the storage facility. One at Jaslovské Bohunice, the second at Veľké Kostoľany. The Jaslovské Bohunice option is optimal, as the storage facility is directly related to the decommissioning of the local nuclear facilities. At the same time, it needs to be considered that if the storage facility were not in place, the decommissioning would have to be halted. Even with the other types of RAW, the impossibility of temporary storage could mean an overall reduction of nuclear safety in the sphere of RAW management. If the storage facility were to be built in Jaslovské Bohunice, no additional agricultural land would have to be taken for that purpose.